To start with a little warning it is almost December 5th, in the Netherlands that means Sinterklaas and he has always a lot of surprise to give away. So want to check out my website to see if he left any? www.geocities.com/timsfunplace.
Now here is the next chapter:
[Still in the bedroom of Francis and Nick]
I hade no idea how long I'd been on the floor but, when I slowly opened my eyes, I knew that something had changed. There were faces looking at me that I didn't recognize, at least not at first ... and certainly I didn't know all of them. But there was Alexei, the coach, and two faces that didn't ring a bell at all. One of them was propping my head up and assessing what the damage was to my face. Wow!!! Face ... pain .... I thought about what had happened and then almost lost it again.
I was never able to remember anything of what happened ... but, as I was told later, just as my dad was going for me, Alexei, the coach and someone from security reached the door. It didn't take them long to overpower him. But me? Well, I was out of it for almost five minutes before the doctor arrived and was able to check me over to see if anything was broken.
"Are you OK?" Alexei asked when I was sitting up.
"Yea, I think so." Then I started to remember why I'd stood up against my old man and I thought, mom ... where is she? I turned around to see her sitting on the bed, crying softly.
"Mom, are you OK?"
"I should never have come, Francis ... then none of this would have happened."
I tried to get up to go to her but I was pushed back by the doctor. "Stay still for a moment, Francis."
"No, mom, it's not your fault."
I saw a look of surprise, at least on Alexei's face. No one knew what had been happening lately.
"It is OK, Alexei. It's not my mom's fault."
I saw him walk towards her and sit beside her. He whispered something in her ear. He told me later that he'd had quite a few harsh thoughts when he'd walked in, only because he didn't understand what was going on.
"So, what do you want me to do with him? Should we call the cops and hand him over to them or ....?"
"It's up to you, Francis. I think if you and your mom want, you can get rid of him for quite a long time. There's no way a judge will let him go," the coach noted.
"Mom, is that what you want?"
"I don't think what I want is important here, Francis."
"Oh, yes, it is. I know this won't be easy for you but that way, you could get your own life back."
"Do we need to decide now?"
"Decide on what?" a cop asked as he walked into the room.
"They are not sure if they want to press charges at the moment."
"Hmmm, I have no idea what happened. All I've done is spend a little time downstairs listening to the recording of the phone call. But with what I heard, I'd say they'd better press charges or he'll be back."
"They know," Nick's dad said before Francis or his mom could intervene. "But they may not be ready to do so."
"Well, I think that for now, I'll take him in. I'll use the phone message as sufficient cause to hold him tonight and then, you'll all have to come in to provide statements tomorrow. We'll then see if you want press charges or not."
"Sounds like a plan to me, doesn't it, Francis?" Alexei asked.
"Mom, are you OK with that?" Francis asked.
"Yes, that'll be OK. We'll need to stay a bit longer down here, I guess, but that'll be fine."
The cop removed Francis's dad from the room and suddenly everyone became a bit more relaxed.
"You know, I was just afraid that he'd start to come around again and start ranting, Francis."
"I'll never let him shout at you again if I can, mom."
"I know, son, but I have to decide on that myself ... and right now, I'm just too confused and scared to think about doing anything."
"Well, there's no need to decide anything at the moment. I guess from your reaction, Francis, that you were able to talk before he entered?"
"Yea, we did." I saw a smile on my mom's face and thought, yea, that's good, she can smile.
Maybe this was all going to be OK. Maybe it was just something that needed to happen. But why today? It'd all started so well.
I looked at the doctor who'd, during this conversation, been busy checking out my face and head.
"So, how I am doing, doc? We were planning to go out to party, so I hope I still can do that?"
"Hmmmm, I don't want to be the wrench in your plans, young man, but I think we need to check out the possibility of concussion to your head. It looks OK but I don't want to take any chance with it. Together with the shock, the blow might have caused more trauma than we can see from here."
"Oh, damn! Can't we do that later on ... like tomorrow morning or so?"
"No, if it's something serious, waiting isn't a good idea, so I'll go down now and call an ambulance. I'll be back when they arrive. Just make sure you keep still."
He left the room. I saw the concerned looks on everyone's face. "Stop worrying, I'll be fine."
Nick's dad had gone to sit beside my mother now and Alexei took the chair beside me.
"If it is all OK with you, I'll leave. I'll ask Reception to make sure you get another room. When you leave for the hospital, we'll make sure your stuff is transferred there, too."
With that he left the room.
We sat like that in silence for a while. I knew that Alexei was concerned about me and I had an idea that Nick's dad felt the same way about my mom, but I didn't feel like talking ... or at least, not a lot. There was a knock on the door and I thought, well, the ambulance is here. I closed my eyes as more and more what had happened started to sink into me. But when, after a few minutes, nobody responded, I opened them and looked around.
A strange women had entered the room and was looking at my mom and Nick's dad. She was about to turn around and leave when Alexei walked over to her.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'd better ask you that!"
"These are my friends." I'm not sure what I saw on Alexei's face but he looked a bit confused.
"Oh, well ... I wanted to see how you were all doing. The security guy said I could walk in now. I was with Nick's dad when they called him to say there was trouble in one of the rooms, so I followed him upstairs after I paid the barman."
"Hi! We're doing OK," Nick's dad answered, having seen her face as he turned around.
"Good! Is he OK as well?" as she pointed at Francis.
"We'll go to the hospital in a moment to make sure, but the doctor thought he was," Alexei answered.
It then occurred to me that they all knew her. I hadn't recognized her at first but it was James's mom.
Nick's dad went over to her and started to whisper in her ear. Alexei came back to me. When he sat down beside me. I whispered, "Does she know about you two?"
I saw the color disappear from Alexei's face. "Yea, she found us earlier."
"Oh, so James came out to her?"
"Yes."
"How did she take it?"
"It began badly ... but I think James was able to show her he loved her and that he loved me like she used to love her husband."
"Good ... now he'll be coming with us on holiday for sure, then."
"Oh, damn!!! We didn't talk about that yet ... but I'm not quite sure she'll be happy with James spending time with me on a holiday so soon."
"We'll see. We can always let Nick ... shit ... Nick ... where is he? He should have been back by now."
"Back ... what do you mean ... back, Francis?"
"Well, he left while my mom and I talked and he was going to tell you and the others that we'd be ready in about an hour to go partying."
"Oh, well, he never spoke to us or to David ,,, as I was talking to David just before I walked over here ... so I guess he's with Brad and Andy. I'll go see him while you go off with the ambulance. Make sure he gets to the hospital OK."
"Yea, sounds fine ... although I'd love to have him with me in the ambulance ... but it might be better not to do that, I guess, as my mom'll be there."
"Ah, excellent ... you had a good talk, Francis?"
"Yep, it seems my dad has been behind this for years and that she just didn't feel she had the power to go against him. And there are her religious beliefs as well ... but I think she loves me enough not to let those beliefs bother her too much at the moment."
"Good ... well, you can talk with your mom tomorrow, to see what you'll do about your dad. There's no need to think too much about that right now, Francis."
"Alexei ... are you going with us to the hospital?" Nick dad asked.
"Yea, but I'll go and tell the others what's happening and that we won't be going out."
"Sounds like a plan! Francis, your mom can go with you in the ambulance if that's OK with you and I'll come around by car."
"That's fine, sir."
"OK ... well ... oh, damn ... I totally forgot about Nick. Do you have any idea where he is?"
"No, but Alexei said he'll go and look for him. We think he's with Brad and Andy."
"OK, then I'll go and see where that ambulance is," he said ... and, together with James's mom, he walked out of the room.
"The ambulance will be here soon, so I'll go and see if I can find the others and let them know what's happening. Then I'll drive Nick to the hospital. Will you be OK waiting here with your mom?"
"Yea, go ahead and tell Nick not to worry, that I'm doing OK."
'Will do ... although I'm not sure he'll believe me." With that, Alexei left the room, too. Francis looked at his mom. He knew that Nick would be upset, especially if he wasn't informed right away ... but driving to the hospital with his mom would be good as they needed the time together.
[In the elevator descending to the lobby stood Nick's dad and James's mom]
"So, do you think he'll be OK?"
"Looks like it, but I want to go to the hospital as soon as the ambulance arrives, making sure we get there as they arrive. I don't think his mom is up to filling in forms."
"So you make that your work, then, Coach?"
"Oh, well, it's part of the job, I guess. Specially while we're out of town."
"Yea, I thought it would. So you don't have to go and see your other son then?"
"No, I talked with his girlfriend and they'll be fine. They need to talk, too. We can have our chat later."
"Good. Hmmmmm ...," as shepunched Nick's dad on his shoulder. "You know, that man over there is waving at you. Do you know him?"
"Shit, a reporter! We can do without him at the moment."
"OK, I'll go and talk to him and see what he wants. I'll go and see James and then we'll probably join you at the hospital."
"Well, there's no need for all of you to come and join us. They'll do a few test and then he'll be able to go home with us, I'm sure."
"To be honest, if Alexei is driving over there with Nick, then I think that James'll want to be with them. The sooner they all know what happened, the faster we'll all get past this."
"OK, that's true. Then I'll see you later, Mrs. .... ummmm."
"Sandra to you, OK?"
"Wow, what a nice name!"
"Thanks, ummmmm."
"Oh, I'm Robert. It seems we didn't properly introduce ourselves, did we?" With that, he got a bit closer to her and took her hand. "Hi, I'm Robert." He got even closer and kissed her on her left cheek.
She started to blush but, as he moved towards her mouth, they both heard an ambulance's siren stop in front of the hotel.
"I'd better get back up and make sure they're ready to go. So, see you later, Sandra."
"You bet, Robert."
While they got Francis loaded into the ambulance, Alexei went to look for Nick and bring every one up to speed.
[In Peter and Andrew's room ... no, they haven't been forgotten!]
"Have you ever thought about coming out at school before, Peter?"
"Well, I've thought about it yet, but more in terms of nightmares."
"Do you think it'd be that bad?"
"Well, let's say that with everyone talking about us in terms like 'fags' and 'fucking queers,' it makes you wonder about the advanatges of coming out."
"Don't you think there are more like us or Francis and Nick?"
"Must be. I'd say ... but still, it'd be a big chance to take, and I'm not sure I can handle it."
"Yea, it'd change things a lot ... some for the better," and with that, he kissed Peter on his lips.
"So you're sure about all this?" Andrew asked.
"Well, 'sure' is a big word, Andrew, but it sounds like the best choice. I know we'd have the support of Francis and Nick and maybe a few others but then again there might be a lot of people against us as well."
"Still, it doesn't feel right, you know. We could try to stop it, you know."
"You think ... well, at this point, I don't see a way out of it. I thought about telling our parents, but that would still not be enough, you know, and then again I am not sure I want to tell our parents how all this happened, either."
"No, definitely not. I'd be so embarrassed. Coming out at school sounds simpler."
"Yea, that's what I thought. Well, we'd better go through with it then."
"Yea, so how long do we have before we have to be there?"
"Too soon," and they kissed a bit more. "I love you, you know that?"
"Hmmmm ... yea, let's go."
Well don't forget to look at my website www.geocities.com/timsfunplace as just like last year around December 5th there might be some nice sinterklaas suprises to be found. Now you might ask what well just go and take a look. Or just reply for your comment to: noway16@hotmail.com or bye ICQ